JOHNSONBURG – Visiting DuBois Central Catholic used several big offensive innings despite heavy rainfall to drop Johnsonburg 18-3 Monday in a shortened four-inning contest.
The Lady Cardinals took advantage of 12 few passes en route to a 15-run victory that started out as a close contest.
Johnsonburg's Paige DeCecchis was on the hill for the Ramettes and despite issuing two free passes in the first inning, DCC was only able to get one run across after a Katlyn Yebernetsky single scored Lauresa Gulvas with one out in the first inning. A lineout to the shortstop by Kylee Schaffer and a strikeout by Taylor Thomas stranded two runners as the Lady Cardinals took an early 1-0 lead.
The Ramettes struck right back in the first inning as starting catcher Dani Jo Dwyer stroked a 1-out offering over the left field fence to knot the game at 1-all. But with a steady rain plaguing both teams, DCC seemed to weather the downpour as the Ramettes faltered.
A walk and a hit batsman put two runners on with two outs in the top of the second inning. DCC would score five runs with two outs before a groundout to the shortstop by Alyssa Marchiori ended the inning. With the bases loaded, Tricia Varacallo, the starting pitcher for DCC, walked on a full count pitch to score Marchiori, who opened up the inning with a walk and ended the inning with a groundout. Another walk, this time to Yebernetsky, scored Kayla Bittner and gave the visitors a 3-1 lead. With Schaffer batting, an error gave the Lady Cardinals two more runs as Juliana Ingham and courtesy runner Rosie Gillepsie scored to take a 5-1 lead. A single from Taylor Thomas plated Yebernetsky to give DCC a 6-1 advantage.
Johnsonburg showed no signs of life in the home half of the second inning despite a free pass to Cassie Biondi. Varacallo quickly doused the potential threat by striking out Tommi Wildnauer swinging.
After a free pass to Megan Hassan and a flyout to right field from Bittner opened up the top of the third inning, Gulvas stroked a run-scoring double to plate Hassan and take a 7-1 lead. Varacallo later helped her own cause with a single to bring in Gulvas after a Ingham walk.
With an 8-1 lead and two runners aboard, DCC broke open the game as Yebernetsky tagged a pitch to left field that ricocheted off the top of the fence and dropped over for a home run. The long ball scored Ingham and Gillepsie for the 11-1 lead.
The Lady Cardinals continued the onslaught and took advantage of a walk to Schaffer, a Thomas single and a Johnsonburg fielding gaffe to score one more run before ending the inning with back-to-back flyouts.
Dwyer again provided the only answer to Varacallo, hitting a 2-out single and stealing second base before Taylor Harvey ended the inning striking out looking.
Johnsonburg appeared poised to escape the top of the fourth inning with minimal damage after a forceout at third base left runners on first and second with one out but the top of the order delivered for the Lady Cardinals.
A passed ball at the plate advanced the runners and Varacallo and Yebernetsky hit back-to-back singles to take a 14-1 lead; after Schaffer struck out looking, the Ramettes were unable to escape as back-to-back errors led to two more DCC runs, upping the lead to 16-1. A walk to Hassan then loaded the bases and Bittner knocked a 2-run bloop single down the right field line to score Marchiori and Thomas to take an 18-1 lead.
The rain picked up in the bottom of the fourth inning as Justis Myers and Brittany Watts were issued free passes; Myers would come around to score after a steal and a wild pitch.
Watts later stole second and Kassa Kocjancic reached on a DCC error. Watts later came around to score to cut the lead to 18-3. After Autumn Yonker struck out looking, Kiersten Sallack punched a single to right field to keep the threat alive. Katie Galsick but the comeback bid fell short after DeCecchis hit a popup to second and Dwyer struck out swinging.
"You can't blame the weather conditions since both teams have to play in it," said Johnsonburg assistant softball coach Mike Zilkofski. "We made a few mistakes and the walks definitely came back to hurt us.
"With that amount of walks, you're not going to win many games."
Of the 18 runs given up, nine were from walks and one was from a hit batsman.
"We had a few errors at first base that should've been caught to get us out of the inning but they fell through," Zilkofski said. "We really didn't hit the ball well either and when the rain would quit, DCC would break through with a couple hits to score runs.
"While this is only our third game, we're still finding where we're at as a team and considering the weather, we played well. We were in it at the beginning but the walks came back to hurt us."